Silver Archive
by EleaDancingOnAPin
Summary: The archive for old versions of Silver Eyes. You should probably ignore this if you have no idea what I'm talking about.
1. Version One

An Ursa's paw took Weiss in the gut and hurled her backwards for a stout oak tree. Weiss hit the tree hard, her head cracking into the wood, one arm snapping like a twig. She dropped to the ground, taking a deep, frantic gulp of air, the wind knocked out of her by the impact. Before she could recover, a Beowolf lunged, and even as she rolled away she felt burning claws rake across her shoulder.

Flicking Myrtenaster faster than the eye could follow, the terrifyingly sharp blade sheared through it's throat and it fell with a didn't even have time to get to her feet before the next three Beowolves came. Mystenaster flashed, and a sheet of fire caught them in midair and burned them to ash. She stood hazily, dazed, as the rest of the Grimm closed around her. Weiss dropped into a shaky fencer's stance, the point of her rapier wavering as her sword hand shook with exhaustion and pain.

Too many. There were too many. At least three Ursa dens, and a particularly large pack of Beowolves. She was going to die here, alone, in a village in the middle of nowhere. And for what, a few hundred people? If she had lived, she could have saved more. If she had lived. But she was a dead woman walking. Then again, weren't all Hunters, in the end? She might as well give a decent account of herself.

Weiss exhaled slowly, trying to calm her shaky limbs as the horde of monsters surged forwards. She blocked two slashes by severing the limbs, froze a few Beowolves with Myrtenaster, and knocked two Ursi off balance by hurling one into the other with a Glyph.

The last Ursa caught her with one massive paw, smashing through a feeble protective Glyph and snapping her ribs like twigs. Weiss skidded along the forest floor, the leaves doing little to stop her, the rough ground bruising and battering her and tearing away skin. It seemed like an hour she skidded to a stop. Weiss tried to rise, but found she couldn't even move. She could only stare, strangely calm, as the Grimm tore forwards.

She mused, oddly, that they wouldn't even need to do anything to her. If they just left, right now, she would bleed out, or maybe die of starvation when her battered and broken body couldn't even move from where she lay. But instead, she was going to be torn to pieces. It was, in a way, reassuring. At least this was faster.

That was when Weiss heard the roar. It was nothing like a Beowolf's howl, or the throaty bellow of a Ursa. This was like a winter gale given a voice, a reverberating wave of sound that rolled over the forest, high and clear and so loud Weiss could feel it in her bones.

Something huge and silver flashed across her vision, and Weiss could see bright flashing scales moving like a ghost through the trees, if ghosts were twenty feet long, and terrifyingly, inhumanly fast.

With another roar it slammed into the mass of Grimm, tearing about with huge, scythe like claws, a whip of a tail smashing around and sending broken bodies flying. Weiss couldn't get a good look at the thing, the mass of Grimm and the sheer speed of whatever it was making it indistinct. In under a minute, the Grimm were very, very dead, except one, a huge Ursa Major that Weiss had assumed was the leader of the horde of Grimm.

She couldn't see what happened after that as the silver thing slammed into the Ursa Major and they both disappeared from sight. But she could hear the roaring from the Ursa, which quickly turned into cries of pain, which turned into nothing at all. Huge plodding footsteps approached where we lay, and something stopped just in front of her.

The last thing Weiss saw was a huge, scaly, creature with four clawed feet, an alligator mouth filled with wickedly sharp teeth, and batlike wings extending from it's back. Rose red eyes looked at Weiss with an unreadable expression.

In other words, it was a dragon.

Weiss blacked out.

* * *

Weiss's eyes snapped open.

That surprised her. She looked around, trying to place her surroundings. She was lying on some kind of rough, scratchy pelt. And her clothes were... um... gone... and, predictably, everything was incredibly painful. Everything hurt like she had been mauled, bruised, and battered by a horde of marauding Grimm... oh wait, that had actually happened.

But for whatever reason, the lack of clothes was what ticked Weiss off. She could feel her face heat up in a furious blush whether or not anyone was around. Weiss spied another pelt nearby, and reached for it to cover herself. Except that her arm wasn't working, it was broken. She used the other one, dragging the fur on top of herself. Okay, mildly better. Weiss looked around, craning her head. She was in a cave of some kind, with a high, rocky ceiling decorated with stalactites that looked like icicles. Somewhere, there was a fire going. And Weiss could hear someone moving.

Or something.

Abruptly, she lay very still, trying to listen in on the noise. It didn't sound very big, more of a light padding like a barefoot person then a heavy stomp like a Grimm.

Or a dragon.

Weiss had almost forgotten the dragon, but as soon as she thought the word the image came rushing back. They were extremely rare creatures, not a Grimm, but certainly not a normal animal either. And supposedly, they had some version of Aura, but nobody really knew because they almost never appeared outside of stories. Most everything Weiss knew about dragons was myth and legend.

Suddenly, a girl's head popped into Weiss's field of view, bending over to look down at her. The girl had black hair highlighted in red, a perky smile, and silver eyes. That definitely wasn't a normal color. She was wearing a simple red t shirt and a black skirt.

"Hi! Man, you took forever to wake up!" Said the girl in a cheerful voice.

"Would you tell me where I am?" Weiss asked, her voice rough and scratchy.

"Oh, right. Um, this is my cave. It's in the mountains. Somewhere. I have maps!" With that declaration the girl disappeared, and Weiss could hear bare feet scampering around, and rustling paper. "Where is it where is it..." The girl muttered. "Oh!"

Weiss heard her coming back over, and then she stuck a big, yellowed piece of paper in Weiss's face. "We're right here." She said, poking a spot in the Ravensroost mountains with her finger.

Weiss looked. They were about twenty miles out from the village she had been in. "By any chance, do you have my Scroll?" She asked. She needed to contact Ozpin, tell him to send someone to get her. That was the first priority.

"This doodad? Yup!" The girl passed her the Scroll, and Weiss took it with her good arm. "Can you use it with one hand?"

"I'll manage." Weiss replied. "Thank you for saving me, Ms..."

"Ruby Rose!" Ruby said. "Nice to meet you. What's your name?"

"Weiss." Weiss replied, tapping away at the Scroll with her thumb as she held it in her palm. "Weiss Schnee." There was no signal. How could there be no signal? These things were supposed to get reception everywhere!

"Cool! So, um, how are you feeling?"

"Not very well." Weiss replied dryly. Really, what kind of question was that, given the state she was in? "How long was I unconscious."

"Oh, four days maybe."

"Four days!" Weiss demanded, setting the Scroll away in disgust. Useless thing, she needed to be able to send a message, not write notes or whatever! She needed to get medical attention, dammit! Four days was plenty of time for infection, or a bone to get out of place... dozens of medical complications lurked at the edges of Weiss's mind.

"Yeah. I kept all your cuts clean and stuff... but I can't really do much about the bones..." Ruby trailed off, sounding fairly pitiful.

"It's fine." Weiss reassured her. "You saved my life." Then Weiss got a puzzled frown. "Something odd." Weiss muttered, thinking of the dragon. Where had it disappeared to?

"Huh?"

"How did you find me?" Weiss asked. Maybe Ruby had seen it.

"Um, in a forest, with a bunch of Grimm?"

"But they were dead. Did you see anything else?"

"Uh, no they weren't. At least, not when I got there." Ruby said.

"What... yes they were. The..." Weiss trailed off, looking at Ruby with a mixture of horror and wonder. "...dragon killed them."

"Ooooooh." Ruby said. "That's right. Here, does this help?" She backed out of view for a moment, and there was a rushing sound, like wind. When Ruby stuck her head back forward it was ten times bigger and covered in scales.

Weiss cleared her throat. "Yes. Yes it does." Why had her throat just gone all dry? She really needed a drink all of a sudden.

Ruby moved back, and with another rush of air she was a girl again. "Cool. So, when are you getting out of here?" She said, as if what had happened was perfectly normal and not at all out of the ordinary.

"I can't." Weiss replied. "I don't have any way to get a message out, and they have probably assumed I'm dead." Her voice was calm, but inside she was panicking. She was trapped, helpless, in a cave with a magical, shapeshifting, murderous oversized lizard. This was even outside of her job description. And, once again, naked! This was like a nightmare.

"Well then why don't I take you!" Ruby suggested brightly, seemingly unaware for how incredibly uncomfortable that would be for so very many reasons.

"That..." Weiss trailed off. Riding into Vale on a dragon? It seemed like an incredibly stupid idea. "...I don't know." Weiss finished. "I certainly can't go anywhere yet."

"Huh, I guess not." Ruby said thoughtfully. "Um."

"Where are my clothes?" Weiss asked suddenly. The general embarrassment of not having anything to wear had been steadily building like a pressure cooker. If she had to spend one more minute in a conversation with someone while absolutely stark naked, she was going to scream. Animal skin notwithstanding.

""I have them all right over there." Ruby replied, gesturing off to the side. "Though your clothes are kinda, well, covered in blood and in teeny tiny pieces mostly." Suddenly she blushed, and stammered "And I'm really really sorry for taking them off but I needed to clean you up and stuff so yeah really really sorry and-"

"It's fine." Weiss said, fighting back a blush of her own. "Really." This Ruby was... not what she had expected. The dragon, a legendary creature of great wisdom and power, was apparently also an awkward teenage girl. Or maybe Ruby was a young dragon? What was young for a dragon? Questions flashed through Weiss's mind and vanished as soon as they came. It wouldn't be very polite to cross examine the... person who had saved her life. Though she didn't really know whether Ruby was a person or not.

"Can I have something to eat?" Weiss asked. Something else, please talk about something else... this was just too confusing.

"Yeah! Yeah sure." Ruby said, disappearing from view. Weiss really wished she could move. It was extremely annoying the just lie here looking at the ceiling.

"White meat or dark meat?" Ruby called. "It's duck."

Weiss's mouth watered involuntarily. "Dark please."

Ruby came back with a handful of freshly cooked dark meat, dripping with juices. "Open wide!" Ruby caroled.

Weiss gave her a glare. "I can feed myself." Dragon or no dragon, Weiss had limits. She would not be treated like an invalid, whether or not she was one.

"But it would be easier to-"

"No." Weiss replied, snatching a piece with her good hand.

"Man, you're cranky." Ruby muttered, sitting cross legged and holding her hand out for Weiss to take scraps of meat. Soon it was gone, along with another handful. Weiss felt like a bit of a pig, but she couldn't help it. Whether she wanted to be polite or not, she was starving.

Ruby giggled. "Wow, you really were hungry."

"It seems like it." Weiss replied, chewing on her lip. Staying here until she healed was out of the question. She needed to report back, and probably get some proper medical care, and prevent her family from doing something rash whenever they heard of her supposed death. If only she wasn't completely crippled at the moment. While her Aura would get her back into top condition within a matter of weeks, she didn't have weeks to be sitting around in a cave.

"Hey, um, not to bother you 'cuz you're obviously thinking about something, but, shouldn't you tell someone you aren't dead?" Ruby asked. "Because everyone who thinks you are is probably freaking out."

"Well, I obviously can't, because the only thing I can move is one of my arms." Weiss snapped. "What do you expect me to do, drag myself down a mountain?"

"I was just gonna say I could do something!" Ruby said, flinching. "I mean, I walk into town all the time. Not looking like a dragon of course. But people think I'm just a crazy girl living in the mountains. So..."

Weiss winced. She hadn't even considered asking Ruby for help. Then again, she didn't really want to. But, practicality over pride.

"That would be very helpful." Weiss replied.

Ruby returned about an hour later. "So, they're all kinda gone. I guess they haven't gotten the word that the Grimm are dead yet."

Weiss silently cursed. She was forced to go for the last resort. "Then I suppose you will have to carry me." She said, furious at her own helplessness.

Ruby gave her a critical look. "Hmm. Well, I don't think I can do it like you are now... ooh! Idea!" She came back with several coils of rope and a long knife. "I'll make like, a carrying pouch thing!" She said, cutting holes in each of the four corners of the skin Weiss was lying on and looping coils of ropes through the holes.

Weiss had to admit, it was a clever idea. It took Ruby about fifteen minutes to do everything. She stood up, put the knife back where it belonged, and changed. The silver dragon ambled back, carefully picking up one rope in each claw. Weiss was left to uncomfortably stare at those claws, and the shining silver scales of Ruby's underbelly.

The dragon ambled slowly forward, dragging Weiss with it. Then, when they got to the mouth of the cave, the huge legs coiled.

Weiss barely managed not to scream as the dragon sprang like a cat, wings beating incredibly fast as Ruby gained altitude. Fortunately, Ruby had the sense to hold the skin slightly forward, otherwise Weiss would probably have slid off the back to an extremely embarrassing death.

Weiss squeezed her eyes shut and firmly held her covering skin in place with her good arm. "I hate heights." She muttered, teeth gritted. This was going to get very awkward when they arrived in Vale.

* * *

The flight was mostly uneventful until Ruby decided to go in for a landing on the campus of Beacon Academy, Weiss's school. Naturally, the people below were not just going to continue about their business while a dragon landed in the middle of them. So when Ruby swooped in and alighted on the ground, it was in the middle of very well armed, very nervous students and teachers with weapons drawn and aimed.

They were probably about to attack when Weiss yelled "Stop it immediately!"

Everyone stood in stunned silence, most likely wondering how the dragon had talked and what the little furry ball beneath it was. None of them had actually seen Weiss yet under the furs. She gritted her teeth in fury. "Would someone get Headmaster Ozpin?" She demanded.

"Ms. Schnee, is that you?" Professor Goodwitch asked from somewhere in the group.

"Yes, professor. And yes, it is a very long story, and no, I am not in the mood to tell it. Also, I require medical attention, if you wouldn't mind." Weiss snapped, firing off commands.

She could almost hear Professor Goodwitch's eyebrows arch. "Very well. Umber, Storm, please carry Ms. Schnee to the medical ward. And someone, incapacitate that... beast."

Weiss knew who they were referring to. "Do. Not." She said coldly.

"Ms. Schnee, you are in no position to be telling anyone what to do lying under a blanket. Students, if you please?"

Ruby backed away, hissing faintly. While Weiss couldn't see exactly what was going on, she knew this would get ugly very quickly, and she didn't really know for which side.

"Professor Goodwitch." A calm, smooth voice murmured, somehow managing to carry across the scene. "May I ask exactly why our students are preparing to attack a mythical creature while one of our best students is seemingly lying naked under an Ursa skin?" Headmaster Ozpin had somehow appeared, coffee cup in hand.

"Ah, Headmaster, I was just going to-" Glynda started to say.

Weiss cut her off. "She was trying to completely ignore anything I was saying out of some bizarre decision to attack Ruby!"

"Ruby?" Ozpin asked. "The creature has a name?"

"Yes sir. In fact, she's quite smart. I think she's more intelligent than most of the people here." Weiss said, her tone frosty and pointed.

Ruby, meanwhile, had backed away into the tree cover. Huddling down low, there was a rush of noise and she stepped out, once more looking like a girl. She waved shyly, understandably nervous after having a large assortment of high tech weaponry waved at her.

"Weiss?" She called. "Uh, your friends are kinda, well, absolutely terrifying. And well armed. Should I run or something?"

Professor Ozpin strode over, his cane tapping on the cobblestones. "Someone get Ms. Schnee to the infirmary. Preferably someone who's standing around like an idiot instead of going to class." He stopped in front of Ruby, giving her an odd look. "And shall you and I go to Ms. Schnee's sick room? I would love for the two of us to chat while Ms. Schnee rests. I promise certain... over eager people will leave you alone."

Ruby looked lost, but relieved. "Um... okay? I just really wanna make sure she's alright..."

"And you will, my dear." Ozpin said, taking her by the hand and leading her the assortment of students carrying Weiss.

As soon as they got Weiss settled in a bed, a nurse gave her a shot that caused her to fall asleep almost immediately. The other two sat down in a pair of chairs next to the bed, one sipping a cup of coffee and one shifting nervously.

Ozpin gave the sleeping Weiss a raised eyebrow. "The little idiot. Her body is still near death and yet stubbornly she uses her aura to numb the pain. Much more and she wouldn't have made it, and for what? Well, she may have saved your life I suppose. Or possibly that of Professor Goodwitch and her students. Who can say?" He took a sip of coffee.

"Oh. So that's why." Ruby said. "It was kinda weird how as soon as she woke up she seemed fine."

"Yes, our dear Weiss is quite possibly the most stubborn person on the face of this planet. We've had this happen many times. I believe the nurses keep a vial of Ursa tranquilizer on hand with her name on it as a little joke. But she is so dedicated to not feeling her own weakness that she will drive herself to the brink of death to keep up the fantasy that she is fine." He turned his gaze to Ruby, his eyes intent and searching. "So, Ms. Rose. I do believe you and I need to have a little chat."

"Um, what about?" Ruby said hesitantly. Ozpin was kinda scary and intimidating, and she didn't like how he said 'chat.'

"Your presence here, my dear. Weiss was about to die in that forest, from what I've gathered. So why precisely did you decide to play the hero?"

Ruby shrank in her chair a bit. "I just like helping people?" She ventured, somehow feeling like it was the wrong answer.

"Hmm." Ozpin mused, leaning back in his chair. "You know, I've only ever known one other dragon in my life, which means that I likely know two more than most people on this planet. A dusty old crow..."

"Oh! That's my uncle Qrow!" Ruby exclaimed. "Man, I haven't seen him in ages..."

"Hmm." Ozpin said again. "Well, Ms. Rose, as a show of gratitude I will allow you to stay here as long as you wish. But eventually, you will tell me what you are doing here. I do not just take no for an answer. If the dragons are returning, I am going to know why."

With that, he got up and left.

Ruby sat and looked at Weiss, thinking hard. Ozpin was a scary, scary man. She hadn't just come here to save this girl beside her, though it had been a convenient excuse to arrive. No, she had her reasons. But who could she trust with them? She had no idea how to get the help she- well, the help they all needed. But the one person she might be able to trust was basically in a coma.

Ruby sighed. This was just too complicated. She really needed her sister to get here, or she was definitely going to screw something up. Hopefully she would be here before anything too bad happened, since she did say she would be here as soon as possible. But knowing Yang, she was probably going to be late.


	2. Version Two

Ruby sank back in the seat of the dustwing and yawned. A full day of patrols and battles took a lot out of anyone, and her limbs felt that odd mix of heavy as lead and light as air that you get when you're incredibly exhausted. Sighing heavily, she snuggled into the plush seat as the autopilot set her on a course for home. Home... shower... bed... sleep. It sounded like a pretty good-

A loud, mechanical buzzer went off in her ear at just that moment.

"Ruby!" Ozpin's voice snapped from a communicator built into the plane.

"Augh! Yes! Um, sir!" Ruby stuttered, trying to sit alert whether or not Ozpin was actually with her.

"You need to change your destination. Something's come up." His voice was deadly serious.

Ruby perked up almost instantly. "Where to?" She said, fumbling with the controls, ready to redirect the plane.

Ozpin read off a string of coordinates. "There's some sort of creature attacking a nearby village. I would advise you to hurry, there are no other hunters for miles."

"Got it." Ruby said. "You can count on me."

"I know."

Ozpin signed off, and Ruby bustled about the cabin of the dustwing, getting all her gear. It looked like the day wasn't over yet.

* * *

The dustwing landed in the town square, and Ruby dashed out, surveying the scene. Around fifty people were keeping a safe distance from the wreckage of a fairly large building that looked as if it might have once been a large shop.

"What happened?" She asked one of the terrified villagers, an elderly man with silver gray hair.

He took one look at Crescent Rose and understood who she was. "Over there ma'am. It's just sitting in the wreckage."

"What is?"

He looked at her, confusion in his watery blue eyes. "I... I don't know. It was big and... sort of like a lizard. It wasn't there one second, and the next it tore through the roof of Frey's and disappeared somewhere inside."

Ruby winced a little. It sounded like a King Taijitu, and that was something she definitely didn't want to deal with, as tired as she was.

"Keep everyone at least a hundred feet back. I don't want anyone getting hurt."

Scythe at the ready, Ruby crept for the wreckage. The building had been smashed open, and likely collapsed from structural damage. The back half, however, seemed relatively intact, and it was the only part she couldn't see inside. That must be where the monster was.

Ruby stepped over a sign reading "Frey's Dust Shoppe" and silently thanked her lucky stars. The town could be a massive crater if the dust stored here had exploded.

Ruby ducked under a fallen beam into the back of the store. It was dark, and silent as the grave. Reaching into one pocket, she pulled out a chemical light, the kind campers or military personnel take for emergencies, and stuck it in her mouth. With a practiced bite, she set it glowing but didn't sever the plastic case. It left her hands free, and bathed the room in a dull red glow.

More wreckage. The remains of a countertop lay in one corner, and shattered dust canisters lay all around it, but the area seemed otherwise empty. Ruby bent down to inspect one. It was empty, and not cracked either. It was as if the dust had just disappeared...

Something was definitely strange here.

A muffled noise came from one corner and Ruby spun around. She couldn't tell what might have made it, human, faunus, animal, or Grimm, but something was definitely alive back there. She couldn't quite see what it was...

"Who's there?" She demanded, the glowstick in her mouth making it sound more like "hoof dere?"

Nobody answered.

Ruby crept forwards, angling her head so the light covered the floor.

Laying upon it was a girl, her snow white hair spreading over the ground, a nasty cut crossing her left eye leaking blood, several other injuries dotting her body but none as ugly as the one on her eye.

Reacting fast, Ruby knelt down and checked the girls pulse. It was steady, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Fumbling around in her pouch, Ruby found a long white medical bandage and wrapped two layers around the girl's head, keeping an ear out for the Grimm all the while.

That was when Ruby fully realized the girl was naked.

Blushing furiously, she undid the clasps on her coat and wrapped the other girl up in it, and scooped her up, carrying her bridal style so as to elevate her head and prevent more bleeding.

Then she hurried outside.

* * *

"Are you sure you don't know who she is?" Ruby demanded, gesturing to the unconscious girl who was laid out on a pallet.

The mayor of the town, the old man who Ruby had spoken to earlier, shook his head. "I'm sure. This isn't exactly a big place. Everyone knows everyone, but I sure don't know this young lady."

Ruby bit her lip. She couldn't just leave her here... and the City of Vale would be better able to deal with her injuries than the small local hospital...

Besides. She seemed so oddly lonely, lying there.

"I suppose I'll take her to Vale then then." Ruby said.

The old man nodded. "Thanks kindly. She does seem a bit beat up, and I know you'll take good care of her. Though... I wonder where she coulda come from? And where that monster went? Never did get a good look at it, but it was there all right, and buildings don't knock themselves down."

Ruby shook her head. "I wish I knew..." Ozpin would definitely be grilling her for a week.

With a final wave goodbye, Ruby grabbed the pallet and dragged it aboard her dustwing as gently as she could. The aircraft took off into the pale blue sky, one passenger heavier than it had been upon landing.

* * *

Ruby landed in Vale an hour later.

After her full report to Ozpin, she was bustled off to the medical wing for observation in case there was any dust poisoning, despite her protests that she had no such thing and would have noticed if the dust was just floating around in the air.

Nevertheless, she was stuck in a hospital bed, next to the mystery patient.

Everyone had been puzzled by what to do with the girl, and since they had no way of knowing who she was until she woke up, Ozpin had decided to keep her in the hospital until she did. They had stuck her next to Ruby, since there weren't any other beds available. Hunter hospitals always did tend to be crowded.

Ruby, bored out of her mind, hopped out of bed. There weren't any nurses around, and she figured she could get away with it.

Creeping over, she peered down at the pale girl. There was a small line of stitches over her left eye, but otherwise she seemed almost like a picture. There wasn't another mark on her. Which was strange, because Ruby was sure that she had had a few other cuts and bruises. The one on her eye was the only serious one, but it wasn't the only one by any means. Which meant the others had already healed somehow...

If Ruby hadn't been so lost in thought, she might have seen the girl's fingers twitch, a small warning. But she didn't, and so when the girl's eyes flew open, Ruby shrieked in surprise.

Pale, ice blue orbs met Ruby's silver eyes, and narrowed.

With one swift motion, the girl moved, rolling off the bed to land lightly on the floor, facing Ruby.

"Who are you!" The girl demanded. "And where am I!"

Ruby gulped. "Umm..."

"Speak!" The girl demanded. "Where am I, and who are you!"

Ruby's temper flared, maybe out of the extended (boring) hospital stay, or maybe out of the sheer ungratefulness this girl was showing. "Well, princess, why should I tell you?"

The girl tossed her head haughtily. "Because I am Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee household. And because I will kill you if you don't."

Ruby's brain went on autopilot.

She never was very good at taking threats seriously, it was part of the reason she made such a good huntress. She wasn't particularly worried about danger.

So instead of focusing on the part where the scary girl was going to kill her, she focused on her attire.

Specifically, the backless hospital gown.

Ruby had been allowed to keep her clothes, since she was only in there for observation. This Weiss girl, however, was not so lucky.

"Umm, princess?" Ruby asked, biting back a grin. "Can I have a dying wish?"

"Very well." Weiss snapped, still glaring.

"You might wanna look in the mirror." Ruby said, pointing to one that was right behind the other girl. Normally it was to allow doctors to quickly and easily assess how a patient looked. Check their injuries and such.

But it worked just fine for noticing how very, very loose the knots on that gown were tied.

Weiss turned a brilliant scarlet.

Her mouth opened, then closed, and Ruby couldn't control her giggles for another second.

"Stop. That." Weiss ground out between clenched teeth, using her hand to hold the gown shut.

Ruby continued laughing, doubling over at the stomach.

"Stop it immediately!" Weiss shouted. "It isn't-you were staring at my-" she was practically sputtering.

"Your face!" Ruby choked out.

"Clothes! Right now!" Weiss demanded.

Ruby managed to calm down, which took quite a lot of effort.

"You know, threatening to kill me isn't exactly the best way to get me to do you favors." Ruby told her, grinning cheekily.

Weiss turned redder still, though Ruby thought it was more from anger now. "You..." She covered her face with her free hand, massaging the bridge of her nose. "Very well. My actions may have been... excessive. _Now_ will you get me something else? Anything?"

"Okay, I think we have some lingerie." Ruby said, her expression completely serious as she headed out the door.

Ruby ignored the shouts of rage as she left to go look for a nurse.

* * *

After giving life to the phrase 'if looks could kill' for a solid ten minutes and taking another ten just to switch clothes, Weiss was fully dressed in a spare pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Somehow, she managed to make it look like royal garb, a princess slumming it.

Ruby wasn't jealous. Nope, not a bit.

"So." She said, when Weiss called that she could come back in the room. "What were you doing in the middle of a collapsed building?"

Weiss looked mildly embarrassed, oddly enough. "Why do you need to know?"

"Well, supposedly some kind of monster lizard did it, and I'm wondering if you saw it. I never did find the thing..."

"Lizard!" Weiss demanded in outrage. "Lizard?" Her fists clenched. "I! Am not! A lizard!"

"I didn't say you were!" Ruby said, throwing her hands up in a gesture that was meant to be soothing. It didn't work.

"I heard you quite clearly." Weiss hissed, biting off each word.

"B-but I said it was a monster that did it!" Ruby stuttered, very confused and a little frightened. What was Weiss so mad about?

Weiss seemed to relax slightly, but she was looking at Ruby with an expression that just screamed 'is she really this dumb.' "You mean you think that the monster and I are two different things. Are you really that much of a dolt?"

"Um." Ruby said slowly. "I guess I am?"

Weiss sighed and crossed her arms. "Very well. I don't feel like explaining, so I will need a large open space. Though first," She said, raising a finger to stop Ruby's imminent question "where are we exactly?"

Ruby was still trying to process the mood swing. "...Do you mean in general or?"

"Well seeing as how I don't have the slightest clue, it would be nice to know general and specific!"

Ruby winced. Weiss had woken up in a weird place, with her creepily staring at her. Maybe she really was a nice person, but was just having a stressful time.

Right...

"Well, this is the kingdom of Vale. And, um, the city of Vale. And this is a hospital, called Vale Hunter's General Hospital..." Ruby rambled.

Weiss arched an eyebrow. "The names here certainly are original."

"Hey, I wasn't the one who named them!" Ruby protested.

The eyebrow remained arched. "Continue."

"An uh, it's about fifty miles due south from the village I found you in..."

Weiss frowned. "Wonderful. Now, take me outside."

"Wait, why would I-" Ruby started to say. She couldn't see how that had anything to do with Weiss's description of what had happened.

"Do you want me to explain, or do you want me to just leave." Weiss said flatly.

"Explanation I guess?"

"Then what exactly are you waiting for!"

"Gah, I'm going, princess!" Ruby grumbled, leading her down the hallways. Technically, she wasn't qualified to check out patients, but if Weiss hurt herself by getting out too soon she would be totally fine with that.

* * *

A few minutes later they were on the front lawn of the hospital. It was rather empty, since the Hunter's hospital was a bit off the beaten path for safety reasons. Wouldn't want some old criminal rival of one of the patients launching an attack on it if it were in the middle of the city, after all.

"Back away." Weiss commanded, and Ruby did so, watching her skeptically all the while.

Weiss closed her eyes, and there was a rush of freezing cold air. Ruby shielded her eyes briefly, and when she looked back, her jaw dropped.

The outline of a giant, winged dragon was outlined in the air in glowing silver runes that flickered like living things. Slowly the runes grew smaller and more numerous, defining the shape of the beast better, and somewhere along the way they had stopped being runes but scales and muscles and flesh and blood and a huge icy blue dragon was staring Ruby in the face, and an orderly was screaming somewhere and-

Ruby realized she had forgotten to breathe, and inhaled deeply.

Abruptly, the dragon became runes again, and they melted away like ice in a flame, seeming to trickle into the ground and disappear until the only thing left was an ever so slightly smug Weiss Schnee, standing with her arms folded.

"Lizard indeed." She sniffed.

In the background, Ruby saw the orderly faint.

"You?" Ruby demanded. "You destroyed that shop?" Her gaze was hard, angry. "You threatened the lives of over hundred people! What were you thinking!" Ruby was normally a kind and sweet person, until people started getting hurt. She was a little less nice about that. And a large dust explosion would have hurt a lot of people.

"I fell on it! It wasn't exactly on purpose!" Weiss snapped.

Ruby frowned at that. "Huh?"

"It wasn't exactly my choice!" Weiss repeated. "If you noticed, I was unconscious and bleeding!"

"So what did happen?"

"I..." Weiss's face clouded. "I don't see why I should tell you."

"Then I'm going to assume it was your fault, princess!" Ruby told her angrily.

"I don't see why I should care." Weiss replied, a superior air in her voice. "You are just some silly little girl."

"Oh yeah? Well... you're a lizard!" Ruby shot back.

Weiss's eyes narrowed. "What did you just say."

"Lizard. You know, like one of those ugly little salamanders. Or a snake." Ruby said, feeling just a little bit smug.

Weiss advanced a step. "Take it back."

Ruby stuck her tongue out. "Make me."

Weiss looked like she was about to, but then the door of the hospital burst open. The orderly who had fainted came rushing out, flanked by a pair of hunters he had probably dragged out of bed. He gestured about wildly, and the words "Some kinda huge lizard" floated through the air.

Weiss gritted her teeth.

Ruby almost felt bad for the guy as the two hunters dragged him back in. They weren't gonna be happy about being called out on a wild goose chase at all...

Fortunately, it had interrupted their argument for a bit, and Weiss didn't seem to be in much of a murdering mood anymore. Ruby was beginning to suspect that she just tended to yell at people without actually meaning it. After all, how else would you explain all these mood swings...

On second thought, as she looked at Weiss, Ruby realized that she... didn't look quite right.

In fact, she didn't look good at all. She swayed on her feet, looking suddenly unsteady, and stumbled for two steps, hands pressing on her temples.

Ruby rushed to catch her just before she crumpled to the ground, the pale girl's body surprisingly light in her arms.

And so very cold.

Ruby rushed Weiss back into the hospital, her head whipping around for a doctor. She spotted one, a tall woman with ash blonde hair.

"Doctor! Come quick, she's..." Ruby paused, but her expression was frantic enough that the woman came running over.

"What happened." She asked, checking Weiss's pulse.

"I-I don't know, we were just talking, and then she fainted..." Ruby bit her lip nervously as Weiss was loaded onto a stretcher and wheeled off down the hall. She hesitated for a moment, then hurried after.

"Will she be okay?" Ruby needed to know.

"I don't know what's wrong with her yet..." The doctor muttered. "Her temperature is incredibly low though... she isn't burning up, she's freezing."

"She was like that when she fell I don't know if it's normal or-" Ruby stumbled over the words as they rushed out of her mouth.

"Normal? How exactly could it be normal to be twenty degrees colder than any normal human should be?" The doctor demanded.

"Uh..." Ruby hesitated. "I... it's complicated but..."

They doctor sighed. "Hunters. Fine, I'll assume it might be her normal body temperature."

But his point, they were in a spare room in the ER. The doctor was hooking Weiss up to a variety of machines, and the steady blip of a heart monitor filled the room. Smoothly, the doctor prepped a syringe and drew a blood sample, handing it off to an attending nurse.

"Get this analyzed." She commanded, and the nurse scurried off.

"Is she going to be okay?" Ruby asked.

The doctor sighed. "I don't know. With her body temperature, she should have been dead already. But, if she's something..." The doctor paused. "...strange, it might not be out of the ordinary. I just don't know." She gave Ruby a searching look. "You know, I heard an orderly screaming about some monster lizard earlier... and she's at room temperature at the moment..."

"Please, don't mention the lizard thing." Ruby begged. Then she slapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh, uh, forget I said-"

The doctor laughed. "I won't tell anyone. Hunters always have something weird going on." She started heading for the door. "I'm going to go look at that blood sample. Keep her company, and push that red button if anything happens."

"Right!" Ruby said, feeling an odd urge to salute.

Must... resist... dorky... urges...

She looked down at the other girl, oddly worried Weiss was going to suddenly wake again. When the other girl showed no signs of moving, Ruby settled down in a free chair to wait.

A moment later, she was asleep.

* * *

Weiss opened her eyes.

She had fainted, that much was clear. And what was more, she knew why.

Weiss Schnee shivered, but not from the cold.

She looked around the room, a splash of red taking her attention. Ruby was sitting in a chair, wrapped up in her cloak and snoring peacefully. For a moment, Weiss was tempted to wake her up. But she decided against it. After all, the other girl had been so kind to her. It was the least she could do to return the favor.

Not, of course, while she was awake. Who knew what would happen if she was seen being nice?

Weiss settled back on her bed to think. As long as she didn't try and use any of her powers, she would be fine.

The fainting spell had been caused by a rare poison known as dragon's bane, of that Weiss was sure, and it only worked when she used her draconic powers. She touched the cut above her eyes, still not healed. It should have been hours ago. Stupid, stupid, stupid. How couldn't she have noticed this earlier?

And in her current state, there was nothing she could do. No way she could save herself.

Her eyes flicked back to Ruby.

Except...

The other girl was something special. She hadn't been afraid at all when Weiss had shown her how she really looked. And she had said something about fighting Grimm...

That might be just what Weiss needed. After all, if one could slay monsters, couldn't one do the same to dragons?

In fact, Weiss only needed her help for a short while, to get the antidote to the poison. After that...

Weiss flexed her hands.

After that she could take care of things herself.


	3. Chapter 3

A wonderful person named Skij Leonhart is continuing one of these fanfics. I don't know which, but you guys should check it out. I know I'm going to. Umm... yeah! That's all really, I just thought people might like to know.


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